Google Earth

Augmented · 13 Jun 2006 at 10:24

In case you haven't caught the news, Google have finally got round to releasing Google Earth for Linux (and Mac OSX) :cool:

. Seems like a nice piece of work so far, and very comparable to the Windows release.

riddlermarc · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:24

Augmented said:
In case you haven't caught the news, Google have finally got round to releasing Google Earth for Linux (and Mac OSX) . Seems like a nice piece of work so far, and very comparable to the Windows release.

Yep, saw this on /. earlier.. haven't tried it yet but will do so when I get home :cool:

Beansprout · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:32

It's all native too, none of that Wine trickery they've pulled in the past

Augmented · 13 Jun 2006 at 11:40

Beansprout said:
It's all native too, none of that Wine trickery they've pulled in the past

Might encourage a push for a Linux release of Worldwind? Any news on that happening?

Burbleflop · 13 Jun 2006 at 13:32

Fantastic. One less reason to boot into Windows

Radiation · 13 Jun 2006 at 14:57

The improved beta version does look pretty good.

cb_linus · 13 Jun 2006 at 16:50

Nice one

Was just about to post this, gonna install it and try it out

ballistic · 13 Jun 2006 at 17:19

good work by google, but a little buggy - I got a Visual C++ error before

MagicBoy · 13 Jun 2006 at 17:57

For the Mac users the v4 beta is a Universal Binary

michellez · 13 Jun 2006 at 22:55

Loving it!

Beansprout · 13 Jun 2006 at 23:59

Augmented said:
Might encourage a push for a Linux release of Worldwind? Any news on that happening?

There's been some independent coders creating a WW-clone in Java and so on. WW2D+1 (homepage.)

Sun have also offered up some Java developers, and NASA are working with the wider GIS community to make WW 1.5 a kick-ass cross-platform program with far, far better GIS support than GE, and for Joe Public now that World Wind has the Microsoft local.live.com imagery it:

a) surprasses GE's imagery in the US/UK
b) provides the road overlays (hybrid)

A community member has also written a KML/KMZ importer...and World Wind has far more data to appeal to the professional, and so on....

WW 1.5 is scheduled for a summer beta, but who knows - honestly, the funding and red tape and sheer number of people pulling the NASA WW folk in different directions is astounding.

I think we do pretty well considering we're a small group with really limited funding. And NATO/NSA/US DoD use WW (seeing World Wind on a wicked multi-plasma-screen setup being used by top-level military guys is really, really, really cool

)

punky_munky · 14 Jun 2006 at 00:23

MagicBoy said:
For the Mac users the v4 beta is a Universal Binary

Excellent, the PowerPC version was a little chuggy on my Macbook.

Augmented · 14 Jun 2006 at 09:17

Beansprout said:
There's been some independent coders creating a WW-clone in Java and so on. WW2D+1 (homepage.)

Sun have also offered up some Java developers, and NASA are working with the wider GIS community to make WW 1.5 a kick-ass cross-platform program with far, far better GIS support than GE, and for Joe Public now that World Wind has the Microsoft local.live.com imagery it:

a) surprasses GE's imagery in the US/UK
b) provides the road overlays (hybrid)

Nice, although I'm often somewhat wary of Java GUI applications, that does sounds promising and a good idea for making it cross-platform .

I think we do pretty well considering we're a small group with really limited funding. And NATO/NSA/US DoD use WW (seeing World Wind on a wicked multi-plasma-screen setup being used by top-level military guys is really, really, really cool)

Beansprout · 14 Jun 2006 at 09:31

Augmented said:
Nice, although I'm often somewhat wary of Java GUI applications, that does sounds promising and a good idea for making it cross-platform .

Too right :s

World Wind comes so close to compiling under Mono, just the small problem of DirectX.

1.5 will also be written in a .NET version I think, I'm not really sure what they're upto....we'll see o.O

Hades · 14 Jun 2006 at 19:24

Augmented said:
Nice, although I'm often somewhat wary of Java GUI applications, that does sounds promising and a good idea for making it cross-platform .

Out of interest why are you wary of Java GUI apps? Is it the non-Open Source aspect or other reasons?

Augmented · 14 Jun 2006 at 20:03

Hades said:
Out of interest why are you wary of Java GUI apps? Is it the non-Open Source aspect or other reasons?

Simply cosmetics.

It comes from having used Java apps that don't make of use the native environment's chrome/controls, and instead use Java's. A seemingly shallow gripe but, for me, the difference greatly affects the application's usability. Style's not the issue, it is the difference to the surrounding environment. I'm quite happy using Windows as I am Gnome or OSX, but when something within any of those sticks out like a sore thumb I find it breaks my workflow. It's like websites that pop-up fake alert prompts and windows with Windows XP styling.

I'm aware that Java can make use of the environment's controls in some manner, hence why I'm not completely against it.

Hades · 15 Jun 2006 at 23:21

Augmented said:
Simply cosmetics.

It comes from having used Java apps that don't make of use the native environment's chrome/controls, and instead use Java's. A seemingly shallow gripe but, for me, the difference greatly affects the application's usability. Style's not the issue, it is the difference to the surrounding environment. I'm quite happy using Windows as I am Gnome or OSX, but when something within any of those sticks out like a sore thumb I find it breaks my workflow. It's like websites that pop-up fake alert prompts and windows with Windows XP styling.

I'm aware that Java can make use of the environment's controls in some manner, hence why I'm not completely against it.

I thought that was the reason. It was either that or the lack of a decent open source implementation. I'm assuming you mean the AWT and Swing libraries that are used in pure Java applications. I agree, they can often stick out badly. But, as you say, there is a way for Java to use the native environment.

There is an open source project called SWT, maintained by the Eclipse Foundation (who also maintain Eclipse itself if you've seen that? - in fact Eclipse is written in Java and SWT). SWT is not pure Java. Instead, it uses a JNI layer (Java Native Interface) to access native libraries behind the scenes. For example, the Linux version of SWT uses GTK+ to render the components. So it looks just like any other Gnome application. The beauty of it is that the SWT deployment comes bundled with native libraries for Linux GTK+, Windows and Mac OSX.

There are a few non-widget differences in Java applications too. For example the options sub-menu is usually in a different menu on the different platforms. Likewise the Ok and Cancel buttons are usually the other way around on Linux and Windows. But if the developers of the Java/SWT application take a bit of care then it's possible to identify the platform and move those items accordingly.

It's a shame that there isn't a Qt library for SWT (that I'm aware of). That would make it a fantastic way to write applications which inherit Gnome or KDE characteristics with very little effort.

Augmented · 16 Jun 2006 at 10:50

That's good to know. I wasn't quite sure of the details, but had seen SWT mentioned before. Thanks for the explanation

.